A Loyal Son
by Heeta
Summary: Okumura Rin tries to discover his own path between exorcists and demons after he loses the friendship and trust of many of the people closest to him. Where does he really belong?
1. Summer's End

_**A/N:** This story splits off from the canon between chapters thirteen and fourteen, where Mephisto breaks up Amaimon and Rin's fight in the woods. It takes a different approach to character's reactions over Okumura Rin being Satan's offspring and the events occurring afterwards._

_**DISCLAIMER**: Ao No Exorcist belongs to Kazue Kato; I do not own Ao No Exorcist, only my own writing._

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"Summer's End"

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Loose leaf sheets pinned beneath several textbooks rippled at the corners under the motorized breeze pushing air through dense September heat. Although the large dual windows that took up a majority of the wall above the matching desks were open, the stagnant air and blazing sun only increased the uncomfortable atmosphere. Rin's fluff-tipped tail swayed lazily along the unkempt blue linen of his dorm room bed. The fur tuft of his tail was more akin to an ink-soaked paintbrush than a usable appendage due to the insufferable early autumn humidity. Slipshod red writing on a manga subscription calendar hung upon Rin's wall marked that classes had resumed for the fall a few weeks prior. On his day off, the cram school student attempted to escape the soggy conditions that plagued the True Cross area. Without anything to do outside in the unbearable mid-September mugginess, the adolescent had resigned to spending his free time relaxing on his bed. His head tilted towards the weak, half-meter floor fan pathetically buzzing between the two book covered desks in his shared bedroom. The titles of the texts he needed to read swirled together in his vision through the motorized blades from a heat-induced haze. It was too miserably sticky to do homework, Rin had convinced himself. With Yukio on a mission per usual, there was no one around to berate him into completing his tedious word-based school work, even Kuro had disappeared downstairs for the day in search of sufficient dryness for the early afternoon. As Rin ignored his studies, the off-guard student's idle mind drifted to the recent past.

Although he knew better than to get sucked into his memories, the young exorcist found himself contemplating the previous six months, despite his efforts to focus on the white noise humming of the fan instead. Rin thought about his life before moving to True Cross Town for school. His old home at the church; his old school. How everything had changed overnight. What he had lost and gained since seeing his first coal tar. He found it hard to reflect on the events surrounding his new school and living quarters for long without putting himself into a slump. When the messy-haired teenager considered what all had unfolded over the past several months, it only upset him further. Lost in thought, he felt recollection of the recent past overfill the edges of his mind where he had desired to shove them out of focus.

Since the early spring, his life had transformed into something unrecognizable to Rin's previous way of existence. At least he no longer retained bruises from childhood scuffles and constant confrontations with juvenile delinquents. Those were far from the blue-eyed adolescent's biggest stresses in life any longer, and they wouldn't be even without his renewed healing abilities. It worked out better, he thought, since Yukio was rarely around to attend to any wounds he may rush into these days.

His cowardly twin had found out that Rin was a true demon, no less than Satan's own offspring, and was training as an exorcist from a young age because of that fact. The spotty little brother had known Rin's heritage all along. Their adoptive father had died in the boy's biological parent's attempt to bring the blue flame wielding teenager back to Gehenna. Goosebumps rose over Rin's spine as he recalled fragments of Satan's words to him, "You bear the blood of the God of Gehenna. I'll release you from this irritating curse! Gehenna's waiting..."

Since Shiro's death, the previously inseparable twins' relationship had completely changed. Whereas his studious sibling was legitimately accepted into True Cross through his own merit, Rin joined as well upon threat of death by the supposed best friend of their late adoptive father. The young cram school student felt like Yukio had swapped his familial fondness for the duties of a prison warden at True Cross Academy, where Yukio was not only the older Okumura sibling's lone roommate, but also one of his professors as well. Rin's throat tightened at the memory of his brother's hate-filled expression when the older Okumura had confronted Yukio on the subject of his demonic condition.

True Cross Academy was a school with an exorcist class during the night run by a purple-haired madman who had answered the call to the only number in the phone Shiro had given him, and Rin felt as welcomed by the staff as a lit match in a rainstorm. The entire institution's campus made him ill in some way or another. If it wasn't the vile compounds burning his nose in demon pharmacology, it was the anti-demon wards all over the school constantly putting his nerves on edge. Rin wrinkled his nose at the memory of the smell of the numerous warding and paralyzing herbs that flowered the school with a choking bitter stink. In strong enough concentrates, some of them caused bizarre, abstract dreams during his class-time naps. He was only mildly bothered that he had forgotten his own collection of compounds needed for homework; it was a pain in the ass to get that stench aired out of the room whenever he forgot to open the window before studying and the rain would have only made it worse.

While some of the subjects made him feel physically unwell, others frightened and disturbed him. His least favorite subject was learning fatal verses. One of his reoccurring nightmares frequently brought on by those damn pharmacology assignments, was that the class would get to a verse that worked on him, intentionally or not. When the group watched how different demons reacted to the spoken word attacks, Rin's skin crawled, tingling with fight or flight instinct as he unintentionally imagined their pain. He didn't mind learning about taming as much, but he hadn't tried his hand at it out of worry of what sort of being he might call for. Although not as profoundly disturbing as the death verses, the process in which the exorcists went about maintaining their familiars also troubled the adolescent. He noticed that whenever a familiar refused a direct order, they would wince. If a tamer didn't rip up the paper, but failed to maintain complete control of the demons they called, each order barked out would render the helpful demons erratic with pain and confusion until freed of their familiarity. The Esquires had been warned by Neuhaus that summoning a familiar too powerful for them to control could easily result in a tamer's death, which made Rin wonder in return what the death toll was for familiars who tried to free themselves from the agreement. The slip of paper from their first taming class was still poking out of the taming textbook on his desk bookmarking some passage he probably never finished reading. For a brief moment, he contemplated if it would be possible for a high-level exorcist to try to summon and tame him, but quickly rejected even considering the uncomfortable concept.

Rin had a unique asset or disadvantage to each of the subjects that made it nigh impossible for him to follow the same pace as his classmates. It was difficult for him to work fairly with others in gym, where the demons they faced would often obey instead of attack him. Early on in his first semester, the worry surrounding the curiosity of others noticing demons' strange actions around him was a far more cumbersome anxiety than any relief he felt over not having to fear being eaten if he made a poorly chosen move in the practice arena. Later, their docility was a source of embarrassment for Rin as the demons' actions ever confirmed the son of Satan's identity. He sighed wearily, leaning closer to the whining floor fan in attempt for some relief from the heat, or at least his bothersome thoughts. All in all, it could be said that he was delighted to return to the classroom instead of having been immediately executed by the Vatican, but the teenager still felt that he was attending a very fancy personal death trap of a school.

In his exorcist night class, Rin had met several students who found out about his demonic ancestry shortly after their Esquire exam. Although alleviated of his worries about his fellow exorcists noticing the unique nature of how demons acted when he was in their proximity, that relief alone was possibly the only positive outcome of his exposed Satanic heritage. Before the other students had known, he had been companions, and even a trusted friend to an extent, with nearly all of his classmates. It was hard adjusting to his new life, but for the first time in his memory, Rin had friends that would watch his back. Well, sometimes he did. He wasn't sure if they even really considered him much of a friend any longer since the young exorcists had found out about his lineage. Other times most of his classmates, besides the difficult to faze Izumo and Takara, feared the youth and his demonic power. The tailed student knew how he was regarded by his once trusting friends, even Yukio, like he was an evil monster. Deep in his heart, he couldn't entirely disagree with their judgment. Harsh calls for his blood from the Grigori trial rang in his ears.

_ "A demon has no business attending__ True Cross Academy!"_

_ "That monster is dangerous!"_

_ "He needs to be kept away from others for everyone's safety!"_

_ "The son of Satan should be killed preemptively before he attacks!" _

The hellish adolescent had heard hurtful proclamations from everyone, starting with so-called friends, all the way up to the top exorcists. Before demanding to become an exorcist himself, even his adoptive father's own best friend had threatened to kill him on principle because of his lineage. At first he felt completely betrayed; Rin had still considered himself purely human. That definite line of humanity in his mind, that he had tried to convince himself was there, was soon blurred though. Ever since he lost himself to his flames during his first serious fight with Amaimon at Mepphyland, he hadn't truly felt human, not really. Maybe even before then, if he thought about all his fits of incurable rage over the years. More often than not Rin felt that everyone would be better off without him; safer, less scared. He secretly also felt that maybe, just maybe, he could get to know and control himself better if he stopped pretending to himself that he was completely human. Although he had told Mephisto on the first day of their meeting that he knew he couldn't live as a normal person, the fact that he could never live like a regular exorcist either remained a painful wound over his summer break. His tail thumped behind him to Rin's frustration, as if it was deliberately mocking his fleeting sense of humanity.

Many of his human friends had become a burden on his psyche since he was exposed as Satan's son, knowing that they would run away from him the second he freed himself from being held back by Kurikara. He felt like he was treading on eggshells whenever he spoke or even simply walked near other people. When he had smiled at them in his released form they had been truly terrified, looking at him solely as the blue-flamed spawn of Satan. Konekomaru appeared as if he was about to wet himself every time Rin entered the room, let alone talked to him.

Bon was the worst of the lot of former friends, although it was hard for him to tell if the competitive aria had ever been his friend in the first place. He constantly tried to pick fights with Rin and generally made his life a living hell. The exorcist-in-training heavily sighed once more when he began to mull over the expectations he had once held of his stripe-haired classmate. It confused the demon exorcist that the student who shared his same ambition to kick Satan's ass hated him so devoutly. Sure he was Satan's son, but that didn't mean he was controlled by him or even liked him at all. Before he had been outed as the spawn of the God of Gehenna, the heavily pierced monk had already seemed to hate the older Okumura twin for his 'attitude'. Rin felt that he had been on the large honor roll student's shit list, even prior to when he asked for help from Bon's circle of friends on the definition of meisters, ignorant of most exorcist terminology. The sword-carrying boy was sorely disappointed that the guy who looked like a cool delinquent acted like a hot-headed bully with a single target hate streak outside of his studies. He had hoped that they would be similarly misjudged, only attracting bad people, but the naive navy-haired teenager was mistaken. Although he was a top student, Bon seemed to back down less and less at the threat of punishment for picking on his rival as the year progressed, even detention didn't put a stopper in the Kyoto native's boiling hatred. It was only when Izumo stopped Rin from nearly drinking from a bottle the angry monk had switched with holy water that Yukio reluctantly stepped in to protect his older brother from Suguro's aggression. The fatigued youth was almost certain that his hate-driven classmate would only find a means to get to him away from the eyes of True Cross Academy employees.

Not every friendship was lost with the sight of his flames though. The exposed exorcist had been moved that two of the people he least expected had any interest in friendship, though he wouldn't admit it to them out loud. Takara hadn't shown any surprise or interest in relation to Rin's demonic status, or even his Satanic ancestry. While he had never spent much time with the solitary puppeteer, the pointy eared teenager discovered a new found enjoyment in Takara's dark humor and quiet nature. A slight smile perked his dreary expression when Rin remembered an especially fond incident involving his strange companion. In response to one of Bon's more disparaging comments towards Rin, Takara's puppet had humiliated the large student by slapping the bottom of its fabric near Takara's wrist, where its backside would be, with its cloth hand. It taunted the burly aria like a child in a mocking tone, "Suguro has that skunk head up his own ass, no wonder it looks that way."

Shima Renzou was another unanticipated friend, especially since Renzou's two bosom buddies shot daggers with their eyes at the blue-eyed student's very presence. The easy-going monk often cheered up the shorter Esquire whenever the latter became uncharacteristically sullen in class. Rin's tail greatly interested the mischievous teen, which he regarded as a useful asset and made playful banter about the different ways the older Okumura twin could use the demonic appendage to peep under Izumo's skirt.

"I'm positive you could get away with it if you only make contact with her skirt and say it's out of your control," the pink haired pervert often enthused as one of many 'playboy tips' for his friend that Rin was certain would result in physical assault or worse from his dot-browed classmate instead of anything even remotely resembling a positive reaction. Though not as frightened as Konekomaru, Shima was still fearful of Rin's released form. Only where as Konekomaru was always afraid of Rin, the nice thing about the far more relaxed monk was that the next day Shima acted as if nothing ever happened. The blind simplicity of his friendliness and perverse jokes were a refreshing change from the overwhelming weight of the rest of the youngest son of Satan's life. Shima must have missed his two childhood friends, but he never let anything break his grinning simple-minded mask.

Possibly in reaction to losing his comedy tag team with his Kyoto friends, Shima had taken a liking to making various attempts at befriending the solitary Takara. The two had become an amusing pair since Renzou was mostly snubbed by Bon and Konekomaru for continuing to be friends with Okumura Rin. Renzou repeatedly attempted to set up a manzai comedy duo with the insensitive puppeteer playing the part of tsukkomi, but the ventriloquist was just too fast with his quips for his laid-back partner to keep up, or otherwise ignored the fun-loving Buddhist entirely. To Rin, Shima looked like even more of a goofball than he had before the whole mess split the class-wide friendship apart. Given the sudden divisive animosity plaguing their class, Takara and Shima's antics were a great break from the dispirited situation between the students who had previously considered themselves close allies.

Shockingly, the person who took his revealed heritage the best out of all of his classmates was the often aggressive twin-tailed tamer, Kamiki Izumo. To others it may have appeared that the feisty student disliked Rin, and especially Shima, but she had her own approach when it came to trying to show friendship and consolation. She was the only person to tell the fire-wielding exorcist the very day he returned from the Grigori trials that it didn't matter if Rin was a demon without batting an eye. He watched a page of the notes Izumo had let him copy from her wrestle it's way free from the stack of class materials and get sucked onto the front of the fan. The motor didn't even have enough power to shred the sheet, as its corners flapped wildly yet without danger of being torn through the blades. Although she wasn't outwardly cordial in a typical manner, he couldn't question her loyalty in their friendship. She fumbled with words when it came to verbal comforting, but her occasional nearby presence alone helped him more than she probably knew. Lately she had even taken to greeting him each morning which, for Izumo, meant a lot. He appreciated that his only other female friend in his class never looked at him with pity the way Shiemi had.

While Shiemi at one time tried to treat Rin sweetly, he couldn't ignore the mutual feelings between her and his brother, not to mention her poorly stifled fear of him. She was a loving girl by nature, but he believed she deserved someone that would be a shield for her sensitive temperament, or at least someone she didn't have to fake bravery for. Given that Yukio had already lost so much due to him, he wasn't willing to take Shiemi's affection from his sibling as well. On top of his concern for his brother's happiness, the blue-eyed student worried that his friendship caused the meek gardener more harm than good. Although he knew she was an honest friend, being around her had the ability to make him feel guilty. She had already thrown herself in front of one of his fights before; Rin never wanted to risk that happening again. Despite her genuine kindness, he wasn't able to handle the pity and fear in her eyes whenever she looked at him, or her blind willingness to sacrifice herself uselessly in his flames. The friendlier Shiemi was to him, the more it hurt Rin when he noticed her trembling in his presence and the more he feared that she would wind up seriously injured, or worse.

Whatever the high temperature and humidity had done to his mind was fully under his skin, as the overheated student tried to run his fingers through his sweat-matted hair with little success. It was a wonder he didn't dwell on these topics more often, but he usually busied himself to avoid such thoughts. It was too hot to do anything to escape his mind though, even reading the latest Jump Square wasn't an option since the damp air made the ink rub off on his fingers. He doubled over in front of the wooden desk chair near his bed and separated his shirt collar from sticking to his skin, enjoying the breeze of the fan blowing down the back of his shirt. A small ring of dried flowers poked out from between the pages of a book on medical herbs on his desk that Shiemi had insisted on giving to him after he failed their first written exam; a token of friendship.

It was lucky for the demon exorcist that his sensitive classmate hadn't been present at school much lately. In contrast to the sadness Rin felt from hearing that Shiemi's mother had fallen ill, forcing the young girl to take care of the shop, not having her there at school with him was bizarrely cheering him up in some fashion, instead of the lone additional misery he expected from her absence. Even though he respected her decision to become an exorcist as well, he often worried about how killing demons affected the caring student. She nearly cried when she had to separate from her familiar; Rin didn't want to think too long on the way she probably felt after exorcisms. These worries for Shiemi's well-being helped drive the teenager when he dwelt on her absences the first week she was gone. He dearly missed sitting next to the cheery green thumbed girl in class, and her innocent attempts at befriending everyone she met, but he was glad that she was at home, safe in her garden.

Thinking about Yukio and Shiemi triggered a compressed sensation in Rin's chest. No, Bon wasn't the person who had truly grown to treat him worst of all, that title belonged to his brother Yukio. Although he had said he would help his fiery sibling, the younger twin had quickly given in to his bitterness about their adopted father's death. Rin assumed that the younger Okumura sibling had long perceived his destroyed future as a civilian doctor as Rin's fault, for Yukio having to play watchdog over his wild twin for as long as he could remember. Now he didn't even know if his sibling had ever wanted to be a doctor, or how many brotherly moments had just all been an act to keep up appearances for Father Fujimoto. He wasn't sure what rekindled his brother's resentment first, or if the stern Okumura had ever actually been without it. The older twin thought the issues that separated them had been worked out in the past, but his spotty sibling was ever increasingly short tempered since Shiro's death. In the past few weeks, Yukio hadn't even bothered to come home at night, always out working on an ever-increasing amount of exorcist duties. Devastated, Rin didn't know when he realized Yukio's frustration had evaporated the younger sibling's palpable brotherly love for him, but it became startling clear that his twin viewed his demonic brother as more of a burden and curse than dear family.

It hadn't been a bright idea to dwell on how his life had changed since he first found out about his identity as Satan's child, and the already downcast exorcist had worked himself into an even worse mood. He swallowed dryly, feeling as if there was a bayron rock demon in his stomach sinking the sharp-toothed boy into the coils deep in his dormitory room bed.

"Who would truly trust a son of Satan like me anyway?" Rin wondered grimly, his eyes closed tight and jaw clenched. The cool evening breeze blew gently through the open window behind the student's desk. It calmed the boy when a light wind passed over his face and the exposed skin of his arms, rustling the sheet beneath where he sat at the very edge of his bed. He blinked in surprise at the unexpected briskness in with the evening air in contrast to the disgusting humidity of midday he had been experiencing, what felt to him, like only minutes prior. Just as Shiro had scolded him for so many times in the past, the bored boy had accidentally daydreamed the entire afternoon away.

As his thoughts meandered to his recently deceased adoptive father, Rin sighed. He had always pushed the man's affections away and tried to make his priest's life a living hell. Shiro had suffered hardship on Rin's behalf, some of which the old man had passed on to Yukio like an infectious disease. The priest had already died because of the demonic twin, even their mother had perished due to him. Rin couldn't bear to think of his younger brother facing the same fate. He slid down the side off his bed, thumping directly onto the aged wooden floor as the weight in his core became overwhelming. Mental exhaustion had gotten the best of the elder Okumura sibling in his weakened state. Maybe he hadn't properly cleaned up after his last pharmacology experiment; he thought as the wood grain below him seemed to ebb and flow underneath like a red maple stream.

The unkempt teenager felt sometimes that anyone who cared or showed compassion to him was doomed to be brutally murdered or otherwise undergo grievous experiences just by being associated with him. He bit his lip while wiping his face harshly with the back of his hand to hold tears at bay. It was unlike him to get so worked up, but he had spent so long trying to appear on top of things that fatigue had sneaked up on him. That, or the fumes of the herbs he half believed were assigned specifically to spite him, Rin assured himself. He refused to submit to his fears. A strong gust startled the woozy teenager. He leaned forward to peel the notes from Izumo off of his fan and placed it on the edge of his desk with all the schoolwork he was so sick of. A bit less melancholy and far more awake, Rin shook his head and brushed his bangs out of his face with his fingers, "I can't waste time crying over burnt bridges when I need to be focused on kicking Satan's ass."

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_**A/N:** Thank you for reading the first chapter of "A Loyal Son"! It's my first public fan fiction piece and has been in the works for quite a while, so I greatly appreciate any feedback via reviews!_


	2. Spirit's Journey

_**A/N:** Thanks for the reviews, follows, & favorites on the first chapter! They really inspired me to finish my final edits on this one quickly. _

_I did a speedpainting of Kuro to go with "Spirit's Journey" you can see at the tumblr HeetaWorks. There's a link at the top for the "A Loyal Son" tag for easy finding._

_**DISCLAIMER:** Ao No Exorcist is owned by Kazue Kato. I do not own Ao No Exorcist, only my own writing._

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"Spirit's Journey"

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Rin pulled himself off of the worn wooden floor in effort to lift his spirits, unwilling to endure any more deep introversion nor sitting on scuffed floorboards for the evening. Having wasted the entire afternoon dredging through unsavory memories, Rin sought out a less depressing way to spend his night. He slinked over to his desk chair in a fluid, ferret-like fashion, and switched on his table lamp. White spots splattered his view as his eyes adjusted to the light, cast downward to avoid the source of the sudden brightness.

As if not seeing the mess would make it disappear, he refused to sit up straight as he peered odiously at the unfinished pile of assignments, textbooks, stray paper, and his cell phone littering the surface of his study area. Homework, yet again, infuriated the academically-challenged youth instead of distracting him. Rin rummaged through his table drawer for a few seconds before settling on borrowing a nice looking pencil from Yukio's desk instead. He frowned at the hefty leather-bound book on top of the stack directly before him and shuffled through the notes Izumo had lent him from the last few lectures.

"I'm pretty sure Satan invented essays," the lazy student complained at his incomplete homework.

When blue flames flickered at the corner of the page he was writing on, and threatened to burn up his few scribbled lines of demonology work out of pure frustration, Rin decided against pressing his studies further. He sighed and stretched back, arms crossed behind his head. There were only so many times that any of his professors or classmates would believe the sharp-toothed exorcist when he insisted that he had accidentally incinerated his homework, but promised that he had completed them all on time. Agitated, his tail whipped against the back of one of his desk chair legs with a loud thump, successfully distracting him from stewing over his hatred of written assignments.

He ignored the sprawling coursework in favor of picking up his cell phone. With it's faded gray and blue casing, it certainly couldn't be mistaken for one of the sleek new models he saw the wealthy True Cross students carry. Nevertheless, the little old phone sent texts just fine and endured an impressive amount of abuse. Rin wasn't one to spend his life playing with a cell phone anyway, at least not one that didn't even have a manga viewer.

The bored adolescent thumbed idly over the open text messaging box on his cell phone, contemplating whether or not to message his younger twin. Since his overworked brother was so often not home, and most of his classmates had distanced themselves to one degree or another, Rin was usually able to ignore his phone for days on end without issue. His most recent text messages were few and far between, and mainly from the spotty four-eyes, with the occasional questionable photo or double date offer from Shima Renzou.

Despite his frigid and distant demeanor, Yukio still responded to status update questions from time to time with short sentences and threats of punishment for bad behavior done by Rin in his absence. It reminded him of how Yukio used to treat him in person opposed to the complete cold shoulder he had gotten all summer. Although the ever-busy, more advanced, exorcist appeared to be intentionally avoiding coming home to his rowdy sibling, Rin still wondered what his accomplished brother was up to.

A tiny yawn from the edge of his bed caught the teenager's attention. He dropped the phone onto his desk and turned towards the drowsy cat sith that was stretching every part of its body, claws dug into his unkempt sheets. The irritated student rose from his chair and joined his small companion. Rin folded his arms quietly and watched the sleeping demon near the edge of the bed, a pillow's length from the sprawled out feline. While Yukio would take days to message him back, and the recent social recluse wouldn't see any people until classes on Monday, Kuro was ready and willing to keep him company.

Since being called out as Satan's offspring at True Cross Academy early in the summer, Rin had pulled further into himself. Before going to True Cross, the navy haired teenager had been used to never having friends at school. He tried to assure himself that reverting back to that solitary lifestyle would be easy, normal even. Although he still had people who talked to him at school hours this time, he missed their extracurricular chats. Unlike his life before moving to True Cross though, when he had often gotten in trouble for protecting his crybaby brother, Rin at least had gained a formidable former silk god as a companion.

Instead of attempting social outings with his estranged Esquire classmates, the adolescent opted to spend most of his free time socializing with Kuro, his ever accepting familiar. He felt relaxed around the cat sith, and enjoyed not having to worry about whether or not he used his inherited Satanic power around the demonic feline. The nights and weekends he spent with Kuro gave him a break from the leash of guilt that came with being both an exorcist and son of the God of Gehenna. It also distracted him from the remorse that weighed him down internally when he thought about the humans in his life. To Kuro, Rin was simply a friend and fellow demon, not some threat that should be eliminated at the slightest use of his inhuman abilities. If the conflicted youth was honest with himself, he felt happier and less imprisoned running freely alongside Kuro, his flames not forcefully controlled, than he did anywhere else ever since he had last battled with Amaimon.

With the sky filled by the cool darkness of nightfall, Rin felt his mood improve and an invigorating energy well up within him, begging to be spent. His tail flicked at the floor in dwindling unrest as the freshly energetic teenager laid his head down immediately next to the still groggy feline demon. A huff of hot breath blew his familiar's sleek coat about like a field of overgrown grass waving gently in the breeze as Rin exhaled.

Kuro's fur bristled in reaction. The tiny demon's whiskers flicked, and his left eye twitched slightly. He yawned once more before he opened his large yellow eyes at his rude companion. Oblivious to the concept of polite ignorance, the newly awakened cat sith grinned at his friend with a paw over his nose.

"_Good Morning, Rin! You can't wake me up with your bad breath if you kill me with it first,_" he teased, one ear turned aside.

"Hey! I'm not the one with fish breath! It's almost nighttime too, you lazy cat!" Rin blushed slightly in embarrassment at Kuro's comment. He deftly swiped his blue bed-sheets from underneath the cat sith, who jumped off of the fabric in time to avoid being flung into a pile of laundry with the sheets he had been sleeping on. The petite demon licked one of his front paws nonchalantly after he landed, and leaped up onto the teenager's shoulder. Sharp, thin claws dug into Rin's skin as Kuro found a comfortable position to keep his balance on the standing student. Wounded pride swiftly forgotten, the navy-haired youth scratched behind his familiar's ear fondly while he headed downstairs.

At the first floor landing, Rin turned down a long hallway to where a row of several metallic sinks were lined along the wall. Near one of the faucets, a splay-bristled toothbrush stood upright, next to a small, half used tube of toothpaste, a plastic cup with his name written on it in marker, and a stray bar of pale green soap. He fiddled shortly with the toothpaste cap, distracted by Kuro's incessant kneading into his collar bone as he went about brushing his teeth. On the opposite end of the sink row, he noticed that his twin's obsessively organized toiletries were still missing. Rin's ear twitched at the feeling of hot feline breath against his neck and earlobe as Kuro yawned on his shoulder, causing the boy to shake his head about out of reflex. He jostled his shoulder slightly in attempt to stave off the cat sith's sleepiness. "Don't snooze on me now, Kuro; you slept all afternoon! It's cool out now and it looks like Yukio isn't coming home again tonight, want to go for a run?"

"_Do I ever!_" The feline demon's eyes sparkled with eager glee. He promptly bounded off of Rin's shoulder, down the dormitory hallway, and towards the front doors at full speed. Kuro meowed impatiently back over his shoulder to his companion, who was readjusting his shirt where the cat sith had used the teenager as a pin cushion and vaulting horse. "_Let's go, Rin!_"

A smile cracked across his face at Kuro's restlessness, and the invigorated youth ran out the dormitory doors after his feline companion, only stopping momentarily to lock the doors behind them. As soon as the fresh night breeze vibrated in his lungs, his eyes adjusted to the darkness around the two demons with ease. Since the boys dormitory had been unused prior to the previous semester, there was barely any modern lighting immediately surrounding the building. The sparse few lamps were often out; he noticed old broken glass scattered around one's base among half-rotted leaves. Rin's whole body buzzed with energy. His tail bounced behind him like a wound coil ready to spring. Without a word, he followed his feline friend up the unwashed stone beside one of the unlit lamps, and on top of the courtyard wall that connected the dormitory to the rest of the academy campus.

The two demon companions ran along the high wall together without any particular destination in mind, in the same way they had spent previous nights during what little free time the restless student had between his studies and when they both tucked in to the seasonal humidity made the days uncomfortable, it provided a pleasant softness to the night weather for the friendly running duo. He stayed several feet behind Kuro, avoiding being whipped in the face by his friend's two massive tails. Rin enjoyed the empty evening air as it blew about in pulse with their spirited feet whenever they pushed off of the Academy rooftops in merry leaps.

He felt akin to a pet let off of its leash on a sunny day whenever he and Kuro dashed across the rooftops of True Cross late at night, without any immediate responsibilities looming over him. The pair made certain to stay within the limits of Mephisto's domain, despite Rin's unspoken eagerness to journey further; to escape from all of his worries about school, his friends, Satan, and the Vatican and just continue running forever. Whenever they reached the edge of the Principal's anti-demon charms and protectorates, Rin paused for a few minutes to take notice of the demons that gathered wherever the navy haired adolescent and his feline familiar rested. With his increased isolation from many of his human companions, Rin found comfort in spending time observing the creatures he was regularly compared to.

Near midnight, when they were sprinting especially close to the edges of town, Kuro and Rin found themselves running alongside other demons, only separated by the impassable divide of repellent exorcist technology between them. The affected adolescent slowed to a stop and stared out at the creatures opposite him, separated by mere feet. While some had continued to run onward, many more of the demons across the wall had stopped to watch the Gehenna prince just as curiously as he was looking at them. They were mainly lower level demons that Rin had encountered before including animal ghouls, moorkin, and coal tar, but there were a few he only knew from the pictures in his demonology books. The curious boy was both somewhat disappointed and relieved that he didn't see any human ghouls, ghosts, or high level demons raring to hold a full conversation with him like he talked with his cat sith companion. Partly because he was so close with Kuro, Rin wondered if it was possible for him to make other demon friends, or if he was destined to always be split by a wall of difference between himself and potential companions.

As he peered over the barrier, it amused the young man to watch a particularly friendly dog ghoul wag its tail and tilt his head at him like a stray puppy looking for petting. Unlike the first time he had come across ghouls with the former Paladin, Rin was no longer bothered by their smell. Ever since he had used the Kurikara, his sense of smell had been altered just as much as his other senses were. Miasma, herbs, perfume, they were all strangely different now. He knew that the demons across the divide were dangerous and supposedly untrustworthy by nature, but it was hard to keep that aversion solid in his heart when the playful ghoul dog before him kept circling stupidly along the wall in an attempt to get closer to him. The creature paced back and forth along the same ten foot stretch near the outside wall. It diligently sniffed and pawed the ground for an opening, as if somehow a hole to access the demon prince would magically appear in the short period of time the eager creature had it's head turned from the spot.

Rin barely avoided his inner urge to go to the dog ghoul himself, and repressed his amusement just long enough to resume his run. He had always liked animals, they were far kinder to him than people even when he was a small child. Especially now that his closest ally looked so similar to a regular house cat, Rin had reconsidered what and who he could be friends with. Kuro must have sensed his small struggle with pulling himself away from the friendly demons at the bottom of the wall, as the former silk god kept especially close to his two-legged companion afterwords. Still needing to burn off energy and happy to distract himself, Rin headed away from the city walls and north through the city, towards the True Cross activity grounds where the cram school Esquire's had done their summer training camp.

For the first full month after his last fight with Amaimon exposed his flames to the exorcists, he had avoided the forest altogether out of a residual fear of running into the pointy-haired demon again. After June and July went by without so much as another creepy peep from the Earth King, the energetic youth had grown to greatly enjoy the wooded space and its supernatural residents during his treks in the dark. When the cat sith and he extended their nighttime travels to the expansive forest, there were no charms separating the two groups. While certain higher level demons were sealed away in the exorcist maintained woodland for advanced training, the rest took advantage of having free roam of the forest. Rin first noticed that flocks of coal tar would follow their excursions in a windy swarm; quickening and slowing like the flow of the coastal tide in the brisk autumn air. Once he had learned to maintain a fast enough pace around the dust-possessing demons, it was easy to keep the coal tar from flying in his face and inhibiting his vision.

"_Ick!" _Kuro spat as a particularly high leaping goblin left a trail of slime along the enormous cat's whiskers.

Rin laughed at the sight of his feline friend, chasing behind him as the the midsize demon bounded deep into the woods after the gooey goblin. A slimy sensation rubbed against Rin's leg as various sized goblins and hobgoblins bounded along in oddly timed leaps past him. Although they were kin to the abrasive Amaimon, the drooling demons seemed to be more frolicsome than hostile in nature. The innocuous way the small animal-possessing creatures from Gehenna playfully skittered along the fallen leaves that lined their running trail was worlds apart from the frenzied actions of the heavily baited goblins he had seen at True Cross on his first day of class.

As the pair often did on days when Yukio didn't come home from his missions, they ran until dawn without tiring out. Night was a stimulating time for both of them, and Rin's lack of sleep didn't catch up with him until the sun peeked over the hazy horizon. In those few minutes between nighttime and daybreak, the tailed exorcist went from being full of enough energy to run cross-country to feeling like a dead man walking, about to fall over from sheer exhaustion. His sudden drop in vigor each sunrise continued to always catch the young demon off-guard, but Kuro had cleverly led them back towards the boy's dorm in the last thirty minutes of darkness.

Limbs heavy, Rin collapsed on the dormitory roof in a heap of tired teenager. Kuro landed next to him with a mild thud and gazed down at his sleepy-eyed running mate. The familiar laid down next to his exhausted companion and pulled the half-conscious adolescent closer to him with a giant paw, which Rin responded to by curling up to his friend's soft side. Kuro purred loudly as the wiry teenager used him for a bed on the rooftop of the run down dormitory they called home. The drowsy demon stretched his tail and wrapped it around himself once more as he petted his familiar under the chin fondly.

"It's nice to not be the one being used as a cushion for once," he bemused quietly as he found his own comfortable spot on the former silk god. One hand tucked between Kuro's arms and the other gripped around the longer fur of his chest, both demons enjoyed relaxing lazily after a whole night's worth of running all over True Cross Town. The sun eased slowly up the horizon, and the cool misty daybreak began to warm with light. Rin yawned, his last word muffled as he buried his face in Kuro's plush black fur, "I could get used to this."

Several guilty memories plagued the exhausted boy's final thoughts before he was able to sleep soundly. He knew his night time activities with his familiar separated the young Esquire further from his classmates. His habits of sleeping in class and staring at the door eagerly with his tail thumping near the end of lessons only increased as the days went by. Rin ground his fangs anxiously as nightly remorse spewed itself through his brain like repeated hail mary's, too often reminding him of his shortcomings and failures.

More demons had been active lately near the True Cross Academy campus, but Rin had lost his determination to kill them over time. Sure, he was still absolutely set on killing Satan, but his underlings that possessed plants and animals weren't the same. Often they were just guardian demons or forgotten deities who lived their lives to protect something they cared for, instead of for malice or chaos as his Professors preached so vehemently. It only made his guilt worse that could no longer drive out their calls for help from his head, fearful demons begging for their "_young prince_" to come to their aid. He had previously thought that they were only trying to manipulate his emotions, but had long realized that demons felt pain and fright just the same as humans. The lines between what he considered himself to be and the demons the exorcists were supposed to dispose of was far too blurred for him to understand his own feelings.

Paladin Angel had made sure of planting those ideas firmly in his head when he chopped off Rin's foot so eagerly at his trial with the argument that "it would just grow back." A phantom pain tingled through his ankle like hundreds of needlepoint icicles. The unsettled young man wondered about what else Arthur Angel wanted to sever from him. Being carved like a holiday roast didn't sound like his idea of a good time.

He recalled a training session from the spring when he watched his fellow exorcists ruthlessly exterminate a generally peaceful demon. Tearing it limb from limb didn't seem like much of a problem when they barely tried to run away, he thought grimly. As the inheritor of Satan's flames, he wondered how long it would be until he would be the one in it's place as part of a routine demon eradication. Rin nuzzled his face deeper into Kuro's fur until all he could hear was the demon's purring and rhythmic heartbeat.

The rest-hungry young man bartered with his conscience; at least his help wasn't wanted by most of his fellow exorcists, so he was regularly able to avoid the slaughtering duties. His avoidance of the "extra credit" offered for joining in on additional demon hunts didn't worry anyone. The older Okumura twin had always been known for avoiding homework when possible, and they were all too eager to avoid Rin losing himself in his flames again. No one cared to ask the demon exorcist the specific reasoning for his continued slacker behavior after class ended. A reputation for laziness wasn't always so bad, he guessed, as his body began to fully relax on the warm morning rooftop.

An obnoxiously pointy object prodded the snoozing Esquire in his ribs. Sunlight assaulted the boy's dazed vision as he growled at the repeated bothersome jabbing to his torso. He waved a hand in the air, swatting at the irritant groggily. Rin rolled over, groping for warm fur to bury his face in. He slowly realized that his familiar had moved the sleeping student onto a wadded up pile of blankets on the roof, and left during the time he had been snoring away. The half-awake teenager clawed at the soft mess like a clumsy cat burrowing itself in a basket of warm laundry. Finding the arrangement satisfactory, Rin curled up on top of the grouped fabric in an attempt to resume his slumber.

"Okumura!" A sing-song voice trilled, far too chipper and bright for the groggy teenager's acute hearing. Another jab to his person came from that painful poking, awkwardly close to his backside, with a bit of added power to its push. His tail whipped through the air with a whistle to assault the item disrupting Rin's sleep. Pain shocked up his spine as a bony hand gripped around his tail's fleshy end, below the dark fur that extended off the tip of the wiry appendage. The unruly extremity attempted escape by flailing about unsuccessfully in its captor's grip. Again the boisterous man spoke in a volume too loud for what Rin assumed was still the extremely early morning. The sound rang through his sensitive ears with fierce enthusiasm despite the thrashing tail in the speaker's grasp, "you're late for school, Okumura. It reflects poorly on my position of trust with the Grigori if you don't show up for class. What will Professor Okumura think? The shame, the scandal!"

The melodramatic male's theatrics mentioning the Grigori brought Rin right out of his attempt to return to sleep. A yelp came from the suddenly alert exorcist as he tried to get to his feet quickly, but tripped on the blankets he had nestled himself into minutes prior. To make matters worse, the flamboyant Principal decided that moment was an opportune time to release his clawed hold on the youngest son of Satan's tail, which sent the boy within inches of kissing the roofing at full force. Sharp nails scratched into the pavement followed by skinned elbows. Fortunately for his head, Rin was able to save himself from face-planting completely at the last moment due to the speed of his demonic reflexes. Nonetheless, he was a bit more than riled up by the embarrassing events of his awakening and panic at his tardiness. The wounds healed near instantly, but his ego did not.

Still on all fours, the rudely awoken student turned quickly back to the direction of his assailant, only to be met with empty air and his school uniform neatly folded on top of the blankets where he had been resting. The stray leaves accumulating on the dormitory roof were the lone audience to Rin's explosion of colorful language at a lump of linen. Impotent rage subsided, the student looked around him to make sure no one had witnessed his very uncool outburst. Coast clear, he snatched up the pile of fresh clothing and began to change whilst hopping in his boots towards the main True Cross building for his day classes, leaving yesterday's clothes scattered across the roof behind him.

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_**A/N:** Thanks for reading! The next chapter will actually have a far bit of dialogue, so I hope this story hasn't been too slow so far._

_Notice any errors? Have any questions, comments, ideas, or concerns about the story?_

_Let me know in a review or PM!_


	3. Late

_**A/N:** Actual interpersonal interaction besides Rin and Kuro starts in this chapter, so I hope you enjoy it._

_**DISCLAIMER:** Ao No Exorcist is property of Kazue Kato. I do not own Ao No Exorcist, only my own writing._

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"Late"

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Rin huffed, gripping onto his two shoulder straps as he jumped over a courtyard bench. An accumulation of tardiness from his oversleeping, going back at lunch for his forgotten school bag, and day school detention amounted to him sprinting across the campus like his pants were on fire to get to his evening classes. Running hadn't helped him arrive on time, as he had left the main True Cross Academy building long after his exorcism studies had already started. He was short of breath when he arrived outside of the cram school wing. Chalk from sweeping coated his school uniform and left a powdery dust that clung to his hair. The few other passersby gave the wild-looking student a wide breadth as he dashed down the corridors. He skid to a stop short of the door and gave a final peek at the contents of his book-bag before entering the multipurpose classroom.

The chorus of a lecture in progress marched on. Scratches and squeaks of chalk against board; the tap, tapping of a bored student's shoe. The Middle First Class teacher added more definitions and a diagram to the blackboard before him in rapid succession, not stopping to check for raised hands from his pupils. Yukio didn't give so much as a cursory glance to Rin when he shuffled through the door. The scraping of pen on paper echoed through the old rafters as the young teacher stepped away from the board to flip through papers on his desk.

Izumo's outstretched arm looked as if it was about to pop right out its socket if she tried to raise it any higher, yet her face was a mask of studious determination. She too snubbed him standing at the front of the class, despite the amused smirk he wore while he watched her reach for the ceiling. The tailed Esquire clicked his boot against the dark floor, unsure of whether to sit down or announce his arrival with an excuse. Although he had been late to class several times, showing up over halfway through cram school was a first even for him.

It was only when Yukio turned towards the tapping sound that the young professor saw his unpunctual brother dawdling around the front of the classroom. The bespectacled Okumura acknowledged the late student's presence, "Rin, you'll serve detention with me today during our break for your tardiness. I'm sure you can get to your desk without further mishap."

Looking down at his elder brother, Yukio pushed the bridge of his sliding glasses back up with a chalk covered finger, leaving a white smudge streaked along the middle of the serious educator's nose. Rin couldn't contain his laughter at such a sight, mild chuckling turned into howls when his professional sibling went red in the face. His outburst wasn't helped by the clear view he had of Shima nearly passing out from holding in his own laughter at the two brothers.

"You will also help me reorganize this room's supply closet," Yukio added between clenched teeth over his brother's continued cackling.

Rin balked, "Hey, that's not fair. The only reason I was late was because I had detention after my morning classes!"

"...and complete all of the end of the day classroom clean up by yourself. Will you ever learn to just take your punishment and be quiet? Anymore interruptions and I will send you into the hall for the remainder of my class." The intensity of his brother's glare paired with the mounting penalties made him open and close his mouth, failing to come up with any further retorts without digging himself into a deeper hole. An annoying glimmer of satisfaction twinkled in the young professor's eye as his boisterous sibling headed towards the student tables. The four-eye exorcist turned back to the chalkboard, outlining the chemical properties of some sort of pellet-based device that Rin didn't understand whatsoever.

He quickly sat at an empty table on the front row, pinned his bangs back, and took out his textbooks for class from his messenger bag. The tardy student ignored a feminine "Humph!" that came from the table next to him as he stared intently at the board Yukio was writing on, hoping that if he stared at the definitions long enough he would be able to comprehend at least the very basics. Sneaking a quick glance to his left, Rin tried to catch a peek at Konekomaru's notes. It was hopeless, he thought, as he couldn't possibly read the meek boy's miniscule handwriting from so far away. The only thing the confused demon could decipher were crude sketches of cats in the margins of the short student's paper, which were no help at all. He spent the rest of anti-demon pharmacology merely trying to write down the underlined words from the board that he could decrypt.

Between subjects, Rin scanned the room for someone he could ask about what he missed due to his late arrival. He had learned from experience that Bon was territorial about his two friends from Kyoto, and decided he didn't have the energy to butt heads with the competitive monk over trying to figure out schoolwork by asking Shima or Konekomaru right then. Turning around, he noticed Takara sitting so still he questioned if the kid was asleep. The mop-headed ventriloquist was useless when it came to one on one discussion over missed class notes. He had tried before and was turned into a verbal punching bag for the rest of the break, but that was how Takara apparently treated everyone. Sometimes he wondered where in the world that strange guy came up with all of those colorful phrases. With his head on the chilly surface of his table, the poorly rested student threw small bits of eraser at the corner of the desk to his immediate right, where Izumo sat alone with her nose buried in a book. His long tail waved slowly behind him in a sleepy haze as he waited for the purple-haired girl to notice his miniature rubber missile assault on her seating area.

_Plink._

"Tss-t-! Hey Izumo," he called to his classmate in a lazy attempt to gain her attention without leaving his seated position. He aimed additional chunks of white eraser at the empty desk edge next to the volume that Izumo appeared to be attempting to read a hole through by sheer determination of will. Several pieces of the rubber school supply bounced unacknowledged across the hot-tempered tamer's study space.

_Plink-thunk. Plink._

"Hey! Heeeey!" Rin whined in increasing volume. With a defeated groan, Rin pulled himself up from his slothful relaxation and out of his chair. His half-tied boots trod with a flat, rubbery thump on the classroom floor across the few steps dividing their desks. The tardy student stood opposite his well-read classmate, who had continued to completely ignore his efforts at getting the twin-tailed female's attention. He started to wonder to himself if he was going to be shunned by everyone in school that day.

"Hey Izumo!" Rin yawned, one arm raised above his head and the other over his mouth. His untucked shirt exposed a small gap of his bare stomach as he stretched. Busybody little Miss Kamiki Izumo didn't even acknowledge his presence in front of her, eyes still boring into the same page of her textbook she had seemed entranced by since he had first tried to get her attention. The only hint that betrayed her supposed study spell was the blush rising in her cheeks; Rin's exposed abdomen was not even three feet from her face. Oblivious to this, Rin bent downward, putting his face over her tome and stared up at her, far closer than he usually dared to get to the aggressive girl. His voice was nearly a shout as he tried for her attention, "Hey! What did I miss in the beginning of class?"

"Find out on your own! Can't you see I'm trying to read?" She finally snapped, and turned away from the uncomfortable proximity of her invasive classmate.

Rin leaned in closer, his hair nearly brushing against her cheek. He gave the stubborn girl his best submissive grin, palms together in front of his face, "Please, Izumo, you're the smartest person here and I'm just so bad at this. I don't want to fail another test in pharmacology. Please, please, please! I'll do anything you want."

The red-eyed exorcist leaned further away from Rin, failing to hide the flush in her face. She waved her hand dismissively at the incessant boy as she conceded to his pathetic begging, "Fine, fine. I'll help you, but only so you'll leave me alone."

"Yesss! Thanks Izumo!" He beamed at his reluctant tutor and turned to gather his note-taking supplies.

Too busy swearing at lost possessions in his bag, Rin didn't even notice Izumo's grumbled response, "You're not welcome, idiot."

Notebook and pencil in hand, he pulled the second chair from the desk his female classmate was at next to the irritable Izumo. Rin's eyes went wide as he looked over the pages she had open. Her notes were meticulously color coded with a division drawn between terms and their definitions; several small formula sketches and questions decorated the borders. Although he was aware that she was very smart, he had no idea exactly how detailed a good student's transcription actually was. She had never given him a copy of her full notes, only a quick run down she jotted on scrap paper at the end of class or in the hallway when Rin begged enough. Yukio had always demanded that he complete his own work without copying any of the spotty four-eyes' writings, so even those were a mystery to him. All of his education, he had only ever written what was on the board or officially announced as test material at best, but Izumo's notes questioned the very reasoning for why each subject was important and how it related to her other studies.

The petite student cleared her throat and started to explain the material that Rin was ogling, "basically we learned a new compound acidic to demons that can be used in a small pressurized vessel for miniature gas bombs to slow down large targets. It won't exorcise anything, but it will slow them down enough for losers without familiars to use their fatal verses, guns, and other weapons."

"We had a demonstration," she paused and looked down at the tops of her stockings, tugging at the hemlines uneasily. Her whisper was barely audible even to Rin's acute hearing, "You were lucky not to have been here."

Rin opened his mouth to inquire as to the reason for his fortune, but the two classmates were interrupted by his younger brother. "Excuse me Miss Kamiki, but I'm going to need to ask you to leave during break today. Professor Neuhaus is in the field currently, so I will be substituting for his class as well. I would like to get some of Rin's detention duties out of the way."

She nodded and packed up her belongings in haste, already out the door before Rin could even thank her for her help. The exorcist professor continued to loom above him for a few moments before wandering back to the large teacher's desk. Without a single word to the problematic pupil, he returned his attention to grading the impressive mound of papers before him.

Rin returned to his own desk to put away his new notes and made his way over to the supply closet, yanking on the handle harshly as if that would miraculously make the bolted door open. He pulled on the handle a few more times without success before calling over to Yukio, "Oi, it's locked."

When he felt ignored yet again, the tailed Esquire stomped loudly over to his twin's desk. He waved his hand right in front of his young teacher's face, "Hey dork, I can't clean up the supply closet if it's locked."

Demonic reflexes came in handy as Rin dodged the metallic object thrown at his face. He clamored to find the key that had slid underneath the front row of desks and huffed at Yukio, "What is wrong with you? Throwing keys at your own brother, che. You didn't have to be so rude to Izumo either, she was just trying to help me."

"That's the problem, isn't it? You never have to face the consequences of your actions and yet you never follow directions. You always have help; someone always cleans up your messes for you," His brother kept eyes on his own paperwork, knuckles white around the pen in his hand.

The bitterness in Yukio's tone caught Rin off-guard. Wisps of blue flames crowned the angered student's head. "If you're so worried about me paying the price for my actions, why aren't you ever home to make my life a living hell anymore? 'Cause right now it seems like you'd be more happy if I failed!"

Yukio narrowed his eyes at his seething brother with a cold glare of disinterest, his glasses a white wall between them with a shine that blockaded the two from making eye contact. "Detentions are to be served in silence."

Rin sputtered without retort. Despite the Kurikara being safely sheathed on his back, fire continued to build up around the demonic teenager, threatening to char the tiles beneath his feet. He wanted to storm out of the room. He wanted to burn something, but he didn't want to prove Yukio's spiteful statement right. Instead, Rin merely growled before turning his back on the familial detention master. No matter how much he disagreed, he was determined to complete his penalties by himself, just to show his brother that he could.

Key in hand, he marched back to the supply closet and unlocked it. A flood of unorganized exorcist junk toppled out of the small space and piled around him, halfway up to his knees. The resolute demon repositioned his hair clip to keep his bangs out of his face, and began to tackle the mess swamped around his legs. He knelt down to wade through all the strange things that had fallen out of the cupboard. Chunky yellow gunk in an oozing jar; another bottle that he thought a cricket with its organs on the outside might look like. He definitely didn't want to know what manner of foul exorcist hoarded garbage he was damned to sorting. For over an hour, an occasional grunt from Rin, the jangling of unidentified jarred specimens as he put them away, and the continuous scratching of Yukio's pen were the only sounds between the two Okumura siblings.

After what felt like an entire day, the other Esquires began to file back into the much cleaner classroom. With a few minutes to spare before Demonology, Rin locked up the supply closet and tossed the key back onto his twin's desk without so much as a blink Yukio's way. It was his turn to disregard his bookish brother, he figured. He barely heard Yukio's muted gasp when the young teacher picked up and promptly dropped the burning hot set of keys.

His materials already out for the next class, he looked about to see who was back in the room. When he noticed Shima without his two guard mutts looking oddly nervous, the blue-eyed student headed over to his table.

"What's up, Shima? You look like you just saw a ghost." Rin laughed, tail wagging playfully.

The tall monk looked up at his joking classmate, but had a distant expression, as if he had been lost in a particularly intense thought. "Ah, no. No ghosts. There's just...a girl that I'm going to ask out soon and I'm not sure if she'll say yes," the pink haired teenager said carefully, glancing off to the side, focused on one of the many demonology posters adorning the classroom walls.

The knight-in-training was stunned. Shima was the type of guy to confess his love to a different girl every week, and yet one girl was making him all out of it. He had to know more. "What's so special about this girl? You've probably asked out half of True Cross by now."

It took a few seconds for his Kyoto-raised classmate to respond. He traced the table of years of students writing and bored destruction with his fingers like a river on a map. Each syllable came out at a stunted pace. "We've been friends for a while and I don't think I'm her type."

Rin chuckled again, "That's absurd, you think you're every girl's type! You're friends with Izumo and you know she doesn't like you, but you still hit on her anyway!"

Shima turned to his classmate and grinned at the shorter male's description, "Yeah, you're right. I'm pretty stupid, huh?"

"Only for hanging out with this abomination," a familiar drawl sneered from behind the pointy eared student.

The hateful comment made the hair stand up on the back of the demonic adolescent's neck. He turned to face his offender head-on. Bon shouldered his way past him without a second glance, the ever trailing Konekomaru following behind him with a squeak, "Excuse me."

Shima was sandwiched between the two newly seated monks, Bon having dragged over the unused second chair from the desk Rin sat at. With nervous laughter, the pink hair student tried to sate his large friend, "come on now, Rin was just going back to his seat. Let's all try to get along."

"Real exorcists don't 'get along' with demons," the mohawked student barked.

Being shooed off by his friend stung the sword-carrying student a bit, but held onto the hope that the lanky monk was just being his usual non-confrontational self. As he shuffled back to his desk, Rin noticed Shima mouth, "sorry" in his direction. He was relieved that Bon's vitriol wasn't poisoning his friendship with his girl-crazy classmate at least. For once, all of his supplies were ready for the upcoming class, so the tailed student sat and waited for his brother to begin haranguing on about demonology.

Yukio carefully put away the pile of freshly graded papers and turned to the massive chalkboard. What the substitute started to write was obscured by his body until the coat-wearing professor stood to the side. In all capital letters and underlined several times in yellow chalk was the phrase "FIELD ASSIGNMENT." Murmurs broke out amongst the temple-raised table, but were overpowered by the young teacher's voice, "In the upcoming month you all will be participating in your first field assignment of the fall semester. As...Professor...Shura has been reassigned to Vatican Headquarters, Professor Tsubaki shall be your leading instructor for this exercise. It will be situated on the campus training grounds, so everyone will be expected to prepare accordingly."

"You mean all of us are going?" Bon interjected without raising his hand.

Yukio's eyebrows wrinkled in irritation. "Yes, the field assignment is compulsory for all Esquires. It will require a certain amount of cooperation amongst the class, like all of your other field assignments have in the..."

"What?! There's no way I'm going on any field assignment with Satan's son. I thought we were supposed to kill the demons, not give them school uniforms!" The largest monk interrupted again, slamming his hand on his desk, "He nearly got us all killed when we last went out to those training grounds!"

A cat-like hiss was stifled in Rin's throat as he fought every urge to deck the Kyoto fat ass, his tail whipping against the floor so hard that the paint on the stone tiles began to chip off. Any reservations he may have otherwise felt about the field trip didn't seem to matter in the face of how badly his classmate was pissing him off. He tried to lock eyes with his younger sibling, a pleading expression on his face despite the insult he felt.

Yukio inhaled deeply and regained his controlled calm, "Any arrangements for the field work are out of my hands. There are multiple field assignments for this semester already planned by the Principal, and he has instructed to me that Rin will not be separated from the rest of the class."

"But what about the Vatican, the Grig-," Bon spewed in another outburst, but was abruptly cut off by the irritated Professor Okumura.

"Mr. Suguro you will have to speak with the Headmaster directly if you have any questions regarding additional information on school policy. I have nothing more to say on the matter of who will and will not be participating." A stern glance through metal framed glasses aimed at the punkish honor student silenced the broad-faced teenager. In the uncomfortable quiet, a thin pale arm shot into the air and waited patiently to be called upon.

"Yes, Ms. Kamiki?" Yukio sighed and closed his eyes, forefingers and thumb pinched at the furrow between his brows.

"What kind of tasks will we be expected to complete on this field assignment?" Izumo asked, pen at the ready on a fresh lined sheet amongst her other extensive notes.

The young teacher rubbed the dark circles beneath his eyes."As with all of your previous assignments, you will only find out what obstacles you will need to overcome once you are at the training site. This is to prepare you for the real world, where you won't have days to study the demons you are assigned to exorcise."

Writing instrument dangling in the air, the twin-tailed pupil frowned at the answer. Those were notes even Izumo couldn't get, Rin humored himself.

"If there are no more questions..." Yukio waited momentarily, half expecting another outburst from the stripe-haired hothead or overbearing transcriptionist, "We will now move on to today's Demonology lecture."

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_**A/N**: Thanks for reading chapter three of "A Loyal Son"! No worries, the person Shima's referencing is NOT an OC._

_Enjoyed it, hated it, felt it was "meh"? Have questions, comments, criticisms, or ideas regarding the story? Reviews welcome._


	4. Dust

_**A/N**: Thanks for over 1000 views on "A Loyal Son" so far! In exchange for a slightly longer wait for this chapter, "Dust" has a scene inspired by your comments._

_Illustrations I've made to pair with this fic can be found on the tumblr HeetaWorks under the tags "A Loyal Son" and "Ao No Exorcist."_

_**DISCLAIMER: **Ao No Exorcist is property of Kazue Kato. I do not own Ao No Exorcist, only my own writing._

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"Dust"

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Dim light from the mounted wall lamps barely filtered through the air in the room Okumura Yukio usually taught in. Dust obscured the ceiling lamps as well, coating the rafters in what appeared to be white rapids. Two long wooded top erasers were slapped together with an echoing clap. A cloud of multicolored chalk filled the mostly unoccupied cram school classroom, inciting thunderous coughing from the lone student in the room. Hacking the inhaled dust out of his lungs, the cleaning adolescent foolishly covered his face with his right sleeve, coated in the same irritating particles. He unintentionally huffed in the very material he was trying to escape and doubled over from the inhalation invasion on his respiratory system.

"How the hell am I supposed to clean these things without any windows in this room?" Rin complained, spitting out the colorful film coating his tongue and cheeks. Clenching the wooden cleaning blocks between the fingers of his left hand, the annoyed boy continued to cough into his right as he returned the slightly less filthy erasers to the ridge below the chalkboard where they belonged. He looked at the odd black sputum in the middle of his palm that came up with the chalk he had breathed in. Tacking the gunk between his index finger and thumb, the curious boy tried to look through the dark goo by holding his hand towards the brightness of a lamp on the teacher's desk. No light shone through the sticky material.

"Gross. I don't think we even have any black chalk...I hope my chest isn't full of this shit," Rin contemplated, disgusted by the idea of dark phlegm coating his insides like a coal tar infestation. He wiped off his hand with a sheet of paper towel misted with the cleaning solution used to wipe down the tables. With a few full body shakes, the debris covered student attempted to rid his uniform and hair of as much of the dusty mess as possible. The chore-laden teenager slapped his tail against the wide green board, layering it with patterns of yellow and white. Before wiping the whole blackboard down with a damp washcloth, he took a moment to admire the abstract splatter halos left by his dirty appendage.

As he checked the room over once again to make sure he hadn't missed any cleaning duties, Rin went around each table, pushing in all of the chairs. The academically-challenged Okumura snickered, his punishment-happy little brother hadn't specified that he had to sweep up the floors again after cleaning the erasers. Boy would some teacher be in for a treat on Monday when the air conditioning was turned back on. With his final penalty from Yukio complete for the day, the belated student picked up his messenger bag by the door and flicked off the lights on his way out.

The fluorescent fixtures lining the cram school hallway had already been dimmed for the night by the time he had finished cleaning every nook and cranny of the multipurpose classroom. It was lucky for the demon descendant that he could see fairly well in the dark, or else he would have probably walked in circles on his way to the entrance hall. Although the cram school was rarely bustling full with people, something unsettled him about how completely deserted the building was as he walked down the shadowy hallway. His stomach growled from the hunger that had built up over the previous twelve hours since he had skipped breakfast due to his tardiness and spent his lunch period in day school detention. The rumble echoed through the empty walkway, but that wasn't the only sound Rin's acute hearing picked up.

The pointy-eared boy could have sworn he heard a faint scraping sound coming from the ceiling, trailing behind him. Turning the first corner, the scrabbling was accompanied with a dull thump. As he came around the second corner, another thud came from above, but the sharp-eyed student saw nothing when he surveyed the upper wall.

"Man, this old building is creepy," the walking adolescent murmured to himself, somewhat spooked by the mysterious scurrying. Overly alert of every scratch, bump, and creak due to the sway the night had over him, the supernatural exorcist subconsciously hastened his pace towards the way out as the sounds continued to follow him. Rin was relieved when he finally stumbled upon the front entrance and eagerly exited through one of the unlocked towering double doors. He slammed the massive entrance shut behind himself with enough force to make its hinges tremble. Dashing outside, the last pupil that had been inside of the evening school didn't skid to a stop until he was several yards from the entryway.

Directly in front of the cram school building was a large open courtyard stippled with elaborately manicured trees and scattered white stone seating, divided by numerous pathways leading to the various parts of the True Cross campus. Although there were several lamp posts lining the walkways, their light radius was rather small, leaving most of the area in complete darkness. Once the adrenaline filled teenager deemed that he was a sufficient distance from the cram school building, he stopped to catch his breath, which the short-winded adolescent didn't realize he had been holding for several minutes. The bodiless noises thankfully hadn't stalked him past the front door, but the alerted student soon noticed the silhouette of a person, who appeared to be wearing a skirt, standing next to one of the many courtyard maples.

"What is someone else doing out here so late after classes are over?" He thought to himself while walking towards the feminine figure. Strange noises coming from nowhere may have alarmed him, but he wasn't afraid of some student lollygagging about. Not that he had been afraid of a few bumps in the dark, the flame-wielding adolescent assured himself.

As he neared the other person, the unknown individual turned towards him abruptly, alerted by the crunch of stray leaves under Rin's boots. In the dark, the demonic young man noticed her distinctive hair: violet pigtails. Unable to see her classmate since he was outside of the lamp lights, the petite exorcist went back to furiously focusing on the glowing screen of the cellphone in her right hand.

"Hey Izumo! You're out late, I didn't take you for the type to be nocturnal. Waiting for someone?" Rin inquired over-enthusiastically. He surprised the distracted girl as he stepped into the brightened area surrounding the lamp, next to the tree she was under. At first, she looked somewhat frightened before recognizing her knuckle-headed schoolfellow and letting out a small huff.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The pale young woman snapped, giving her phone another glance before shoving it into the full school bag draped over her shoulder.

"Well yeah, I guess. I asked, didn't I?" He laughed, scratching the back of his head. Rin tapped the toe of one of his boots on the pavement and stumbled over his words, "If you aren't, I just thought maybe we could head towards the dorms together. Since it's dark out and I can see pretty well at night. I think the girls dorms are right across the way from the old building Yukio and I are in...it's cool if you're busy though."

One of Izumo's dot brows raised at the Okumura boy's awkward behavior. She sighed and buttoned the compartment on her sizable purple bag she had placed her phone in, double checking to make sure everything was zipped and fastened. "Might as well. It would be pathetic if you got lost."

"Che, I'm not the one standing alone out here in the dark," the nocturnal adolescent protested.

His scrutinous classmate looked around the defensive male. She raised a hand to her forehead, scanning left and right before staring at him. She retorted, "I don't see anyone else with you, idiot."

Rin accepted his defeat graciously, shrugging it off with a foolish grin. The two Esquires began their stroll down the path in front of them in silence, Izumo trailing slightly behind her night-vision capable escort. The scope of the True Cross campus engulfed by darkness was completely different from the ground level in comparison to how Rin overlooked the school on his evening runs with Kuro along the tops of the outer walls and scattered rooftops. It felt as if the night itself desired to swallow up the two teenagers, mere specks in a vast labyrinth of groomed greenery and looping footpaths. Maybe it was because of the mysterious scampering he had encountered inside the school, but Rin was looking forward to seeing that run down old boy's dormitory. It was nice to not walk alone though, no matter the circumstances. He especially appreciated Izumo's lone company since he so rarely had the chance to be alone with the only girl left in their Esquire class.

The silence was beginning to make him feel awkward, he had never been great at socializing, but he was pretty certain that conversation was a basic requirement of friendship. It was simple in theory, but he didn't know much about Izumo to talk about. He knew she was one of the top students in both day and night classes, that her best friend was Paku, she hated Arias, and that her family's shrine had somehow been affected by the Blue Night, but he didn't know how. That night was definitely not something he wished to bring up casually, it was a sure-fire way to drive her away, he thought. School though, that was an innocent enough topic. Hadn't Shima mentioned that she was a class representative? That seemed mundane enough to talk about.

"So you're the girl's rep in your day class, right? It seems like a lot of work." He attempted small talk with the bossy girl, hands shoved in his pockets casually as they continued down the unmarked path.

"It's not hard. Paku usually convinces me to volunteer for the position since no one else does." Izumo's focus idly drifted to the ground as she followed Rin's footsteps. Fallen autumn leaves crunched beneath her heels, a few small flakes stuck to her knitted socks.

"So it's possible to convince you to do something, huh?" Fur-tuft appendage swaying behind him rapidly, the tailed adolescent smiled back at his classmate, "You should be class rep for the cram school, so we could have a booth at the school festival too. Maybe a haunted house, that would be cool..."

The scholarly student laughed lightly, mouth covered by her hand. "That's not how it works at all; the cram school doesn't participate in festivals or have a representative. It's not like True Cross wants to go around advertising their exorcist training school. You really don't think about these things before you speak."

"Ah, well, I still think you'd do a good job at it," he trailed off, beaming a supportive smile in Izumo's direction. One of the walkway lights lit his face enough for his hot and cold classmate to see his goofy grin.

"You think I'd do well at something that doesn't exist, thanks," she rolled her eyes at him as she hid her smile, wiping a windblown hair away from her face with a flip of her hand.

A blanket of clouds rolled lazily overhead as quiet settled between the dorm bound adolescents. Several minutes passed by with only the crackling of dried greenery underfoot and rhythmic chirping of cicadas hiding in the grass. Rin closed his eyes and slowed his stride, appreciating the benefit of taking the same route so many times. He breathed the chalk-free air deeply, relieved to not cough up nastiness in front of his schoolmate. Sweetness seeped into his respiratory system, slowly infiltrating his senses.

"Candy...?" He mumbled under his breath. The young demon's mind cranked slowly as he began to feel a rumble of uncertain panic in his gut. When he tried to localize the scent, the sugary odor became overwhelming. Rin side-stepped a few inches closer to Izumo. He sniffed near her hair cautiously. No, her's was a spicy aroma of cinnamon and clove, not that of pure sugar. It had notes and layers that tickled his nose, unlike the simple, syrupy odor that was invading his senses.

"Did you just sniff me?" She stared at him accusingly, eyebrows raised. Izumo put space between them again, switching her bag to the shoulder closest to Rin.

The saccharine scent wafted on the evening air heavily, triggering the young demon to crook his head and inhale curiously once more. Rin's tail flicked instinctively, causing a chill to run up his spine. "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" Izumo lightly sniffed her hand. "My perfume?"

"No, it's like someone dumped over a vat of simple syrup." He looked about for its source along the academy pathway. There was no food cart or vending machine in sight. The spooked student tried to laugh off the odd sweetness to his empty stomach, "I'm so hungry from all that cleaning, I must be imagining things."

He glanced back towards the cram school courtyard, briefly brushing his arm against Izumo's shoulder as the taller teenager leaned past her, eyes scanning through the darkness behind them. Less than twenty minutes had passed since they had began walking together, but the cram school behind them was already obscured too much by night for normal human vision. Rin could just barely make out the wide open double doors that the demonic exorcist was certain he had slammed shut on his hurry out of the school.

His stomach dropped and he stopped in place. Rin's eyes darted from along the bench-lined path for any sign of movement. So focused on the space between them and the cram school, Rin jumped at the sound of Izumo's resumed footsteps. He followed his classmate along more closely than before, easily keeping up with her increased pace.

Izumo drubbed her thumb anxiously against the side of her cellphone, checking its empty black screen. Frustration released from her mouth as a low huff.

"Are you waiting for a call?" He inquired, noticing her particular attachment to the device. It was a lot newer than his phone and had several more cutesy mascot charms danging from it on brightly colored cords.

"It appears my prior plans for the night were canceled unilaterally without mutual knowledge of such change." She frowned, brows lowered.

He blinked and stopped in front of the fountain central between the split to the old and new dormitory buildings. "You got blown off?"

"Some people just don't care about fulfilling their responsibilities." She smoothed her bangs and readjusted the bag strap on her shoulder. The short young woman looked around the empty courtyard, heading towards the right path. "It's faster to get to the girls dorm from here. Don't forget the essay for demon pharmacology, I won't help you if you show up empty handed again."

"I could walk you back to the dorm since it's so dark." Rin offered, glancing warily towards the cram school building. He shoved his moist palms in his pockets and wondered how to not come across as paranoid while still being wary of the sweet scent.

"That's not necessary; I am fully capable of walking myself home. Goodnight, Rin." Izumo dismissed him with a wave.

"Thanks for walking with me. See you in class tomorrow." Rin called back to the young woman who was already picking up pace towards the sculpture decorated fountain in the courtyard ahead of them.

She nodded at her hellish classmate and walked down the fruit tree-lined path that lead towards the girls dormitory without further farewell.

He lingered around the fountain for a few minutes. Pacing back and forth only worked him up. He sat on on the cold stone surface as estimated how long it would take for Izumo to get back to the girls dorm, so that he could leave without upsetting the nervous feeling in his gut. Checking the time on his phone, he scratched his nose, still bothered by the sweet irritant clinging to the air.

Rin doubled back into the dark. He stopped next to a maple over four times his height and inhaled towards the sky. Hand on the lowest branch, he climbed up the tree and sniffed again. His tail twisted itself around the flimsy limb he stood on and snapped it out from beneath him. Rin jumped onto the lawn and grabbed his mischievous tail near the base of his spine. He pulled his arm quickly down the fur to its tufted end with one hand as he held onto its midpoint with the other.

He stood still and listened to the night. The hum of a nearby lamp as bugs sizzled on its surface. Leaves blowing over stone before getting trapped and torn apart in the grass. Cooing birds; talons scraping on bark and twigs. The distorted wail of an emergency vehicle siren from the city below. A distinct, destructive-sounding gnashing that reminded him of the old record player he had grown up with at the church. The needle had warped over the years and would take to grinding down the grooves in the records it played until they cracked.

"Hello?" Rin called out into the night, hand gripped on his sword bag. A few birds scattered out of the trees, but no reply came. He sighed and swore under his breath.

The exhausted youth turned the way he had came and slowly made the winding trek back to the boys dormitory. Rin scraped his nails against the wall to his side as his outstretched hands dragged against the gritty stone. Jumping on top of the divide, he visually surveyed the school grounds he had roamed. He turned to face the interior courtyard the wall enclosed and noticed a familiar pattern of fabric bunched on at the foot of the wall. Squid and jellyfish atop a stylized ocean wave pattern, the boxers were a souvenir from sea-side exorcist training he regularly wore, and now they were sitting out in the open atop a patch of dead grass.  
He leapt down and swooped the soft article up in his hand. A few feet away, he spotted a lone sock. Rin looked up at the courtyard and noticed Kuro scampering about, dragging a piece of clothing thrice the critter's size along the dirt.

"What are you doing?" He balked at the split-tailed animal. The taller demon furiously grabbed for several more pieces of clothing.

"I want to play with Rin's smelly clothes too!" Kuro responded. The cat skittered off, one of the tired student's dress shirts carried in his mouth by the sweat-stained collar.

Rin chased his mischievous familiar around the courtyard, picking up stray clothing along the way. He picked glass chunks from the broken lamps out of a uniform jacket near one of the walls, cutting the outer side of his hand on the shard. Hardly more than a scratch, he flexed his fingers as the cut healed and wiped what little blood had come to the surface onto the laundry-bound black jacket.

Surveying the grounds, his eyes burned and watered as he peered into the darkness of the treeline behind the boys dormitory. Prickling pain tingled in his lungs and a wet cough resulted in grimy gray sputum sprayed onto the filthy coat. Between being worn to exorcisms and a target of Kuro's curiosity, he was certain it had seen worse. The filth of chalk, blood, and questionably-colored lung expectorate on his own body already, he was definitely looking forward to a long wash of his own.

After combing through the entire lawn, Rin was certain he had finally collected all of the strewn about clothing and linens by his rambunctious companion. Fabric articles piled in his arms he pulled bits of leaf from the items as they scratched against his skin. Walking towards the dormitory, he turned to his his familiar, nearly calling out the cat's name when he notice how still the animal was, faced towards the wall he had jumped over earlier. He watched Kuro sniff the air with shuddering whiskers and ears laid back.

The cat sith's fur stood on end. "_We should go inside," _He mewled quietly.

Rin nodded. His stomach whined, muffled by the clothing he carried. "I'm so hungry; I hope Ukobach already made dinner."

"_Can we run after dinner?_" Kuro asked, jogging ahead of him.

"No, I got in a lot of trouble today for being late. Even if he cooked, it's going to be midnight by the time we finish dinner. I already have to catch up on a ton of homework anyway and someone had to go and start a lawn party with all of our laundry." Rin peered at Kuro accusingly from behind his familiar, coughing into the clothing pile.

"_That's no fun._" The small demon pouted, ignoring his tone. Kuro pushed the unlocked doors open with his body and moved out of the way before he could be crushed by Rin being unable to see the familiar under his carrying load. Disappearing down the hall, he quickly returned with a laundry basket angled on top of him like a turtle's shell. He dragged the container with him to the first step of the entrance area and dropped it in front of Rin. The cat gave a fanged smile at his friend, "_Thanks for playing with me._"

"Yeah, yeah. Next time just ask to play instead of making lawn decorations out of our dirty laundry. You may not wear clothes, but what if Yukio came home while that stuff was out there?" Rin dropped the clothing into the basket haphazardly, barely avoiding piling them on top of the other demon.

"_I'm sorry." _Kuro looked at the ground, tails curled underneath him.

Rin patted Kuro's head gently, the cat nuzzling against his fingers. "I need to clean up a bit before we eat, why don't you go check and see if there's food prepared?"

He smiled as his familiar padded off towards the kitchen, pushing the heavy basket with its horns. The exhausted boy sat on the steps separating the entrance and the rest of the dorm, bag resting beside him. He left his red boots lined by the front door and stretched out his toes. With a yawn, he pulled on a pair of slippers and headed towards the sink-lined hallway.

In front of the mirror, the dirty student caught his reflection and laughed at his chalk covered hair and uniform. With a wet hand towel, he wiped down the lapel of his uniform jacket until the fabric ran black. He rolled his sleeves up past his elbows, scrubbing his filth laden hands with soap that made his skin tingle. The gurgle of his stomach as he turned off the tap refused to wait for him to take a shower before eating.

Lured to the kitchen by the smell of food, Rin dropped his damp jacket onto the laundry basket in the corner of the dining hall on his way to the pass opening to the kitchen. Two steaming bowls of fresh ramen sat before him on the counter next to two pairs of spoons and chopsticks. He reached through the partition for a small bowl from a nearby shelf and poured a spoonful of liquid and meat from both of the filled dishes into it. With the portioned bowl and one of the larger ramen in his hands, he carried the dishes to the closest clean table.

"Time for dinner!" He called out, setting the smaller bowl across from where he placed his own. Kuro stormed into the kitchen with such speed that Rin chuckled when his eager familiar had to skid to a stop on the slippery dining hall floor. They ate like famished beasts, both noses at the bottom of their bowls within minutes.

Rin wiped his hands on a nearby rag, running a visual check over the counter for any unwashed dishes. After reshuffling the items in the drying rack, he returned the hand-washed ladle and rice cooker to their proper storage. The young man's feline housemate joined him in the kitchen, eyes on the filled soup bowl still on the counter ledge. Keeping his distance from the wet sink, the cat sith meowed his arrival to Rin.

"_What should we do with the other bowl of ramen?" _Kuro asked, licking the side of his mouth.

The bipedal demon sighed, "Leave it."

"_Won't the noodles get soggy?_" The cat peered up at Rin, front paws on the bottom counter shelf.

"If Yukio cared about soggy noodles, he'd come home to dinner. It's nearly midnight and I haven't heard a peep, so he'll just have to deal with it." The glass in his hand cracked, shards embedded into his skin. On his way out of the kitchen, he threw the remains of the broken cup into one of the recycling bins behind him.

He grabbed his basin of washing supplies from the hallway sinks and walked to the bathroom. The grime-coated youth tossed his clothing into the laundry hamper and stepped onto the cold ceramic floor of the showering area. Several shower heads on long coils lined the tiled walls, each hung on a hook three feet above the ground. He removed his shampoo and soap from the basin in his arms and turned it over on the floor. Using the plastic bin as a stool, he sat down in front of one of the shower heads and turned it on.

The sound of water running over his body soothed him as he ran his fingers through the tangles of his hair. He watched the colorful chalk stain the fluid on it's way to the drain in the center of the room. Green soap overpowered the filth quickly, water running clear as he scrubbed the chalk out of the fur of his tail. The long appendage writhed in his grip when he rubbed soap into the tufted end; he gripped tightly until it went limp in his hand from lack of circulation. Pieces of glass from his hand fell to the floor when he let go; he looked over his hand to make sure there were no sharp bits left from the cup he had shattered.

Towel wrapped around his waist and another in his hands, Rin walked out to the hallway mirrors. After he dried his hair, Rin enjoyed seeing the reflection of it laying mostly flat instead of sticking up every which way from filth accumulation. Returning to the bathroom, he tossed the towel he had used on his hair into the hamper and turned off the bathroom lights. He slid the door closed behind him.

Hardcovers slammed against his desk with a thwack as he turned his school satchel upside-down on its surface. He slid the books about, tossing several onto the accumulating pile in the corner of his desk. A pencil rolled off the table and underneath the wardrobe on the opposite side of the room. He watched the pencil roll away, too exhausted from back to back detention to even acknowledge the event until he heard the wood tap against the wall.

Rin got on all fours and and tried to reach under the cabinet, wrist getting stuck in the space between the floor and frame. He yanked his hand free and laid the side of his head against the floor, peeking under the wardrobe with one eye. Groaning, he moved his head out of the way and squeezed his tail under the cabinet. The wiry limb groped along the floorboards, sweeping out decades of lost items from underneath the furniture piece. The growing pile included a couple faded pin-up magazines, a small mountain of lost writing utensils, and at least three pairs of Yukio's glasses. Pencil retrieved, he picked up one of the crinkly magazines and flipped through it.

"Pretty girls don't change much over the decades, I guess." Turning the magazine sideways, a thin wire-bound book fell out of the old pinup collection. He flipped the fallen article over, and read the cover sheet labeled "Class of 19-," the last digits lost to fading from time. He turned through the book filled with individual bust shots of young men and women until he came to a page filled with a group photograph of people standing in front of a shrine gate. A stern faced woman with short, triangular eyebrows in a flowing dress stood out to him from amongst students in True Cross uniform who were mostly smiling. He checked the page margin for a label, but most of the print was faded to the point of illegibility; only the characters for "field trip" and "sacred tree" were decipherable. Rin closed the book and placed it with the other items from underneath the cabinet, stacking them all on top of the same piece of furniture before returning to his desk.

Kuro jumped up onto his table and laid down on the pile of books tucked in the corner. He ignored the feline, focused on the open book and mildly legible notes before him. A paw reached into his field of vision, batting at his discarded bookmark. Rin laughed softly and looked up at the furry distraction.

"It must be nice to not have homework." Rin mused. He scratched the cat's exposed belly with the eraser end of his pencil. The tired adolescent turned the pages of his notebook idly, not absorbing much of the charts before him.

"_I get bored when you're at school all day. Ukobach has so many rules and there's no one else to play with._" The cat complained, poking his face into the stuffy tome and sniffing it curiously. He wrinkled his nose and sneezed, whiskers shuddering.

Rin chuckled and held a tissue up to his familiar's face as the cat rubbed his whiskers against it. He patted Kuro's head gently. "You probably know more about demons than I do; want to help me with my essay?"

"_Sure!_" The two-tailed creature replied, front paws on the edge of the desk as he tried to get a better look at the funny looking illustrations in the book.

Rin copied the disheveled rough draft into his blue journal with slightly improved penmanship and grammar. With the aid of his feline friend on the effects of various plants the cat sith had encountered over the centuries, he was able to cut down his research time. The tired student was glad to see it was still dark out when he packed up his bag for the morning and left it on his desk chair. He looked at the alarm clock on Yukio's desk and sighed.

Putting his slippers back on, he trekked downstairs. When he arrived in the unlit kitchen, he rifled through a cabinet until he pulled out a round plastic lid. The ceramic soup bowl was cold in his hands as he popped the clear top onto it. He grabbed a small strip of tape and a marker from a lazy susan on the counter. Rin slapped the label "Yukio's missed dinner" with the date onto the lid and slid it into the refrigerator.

Feet dragging, he headed back up the stairway much slower than he came down moments earlier. He smiled warmly as he noticed Kuro was already snoring on Yukio's neglected bed, hindquarters stretched askew over his younger brother's pillow. He collapsed on his own sleeping arrangements with a silent yawn. The blankets cool against his skin, he slipped easily into sleep.

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_**A/N 1:** The characters Rin saw on the old photograph from under the dresser were "修学旅行" and "神木", one of which appears elsewhere in Ao No Exorcist canon._

_**A/N 2:** This chapter was the toughest for me to be happy with completing between of the four posted so far; I hope you all enjoy that it's also the longest chapter published for "A Loyal Son" to date._

_Special thanks to Phantom Hitman 1412 for her beta work for chapters one through three and Rai for her help with "Dust."_

_Reviews welcome. I especially appreciate those of you who continue to review multiple chapters; your input on what you like/dislike and want to see in this story help me dearly._


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